How to immobilize a shit in ship to ship combat

[Gralumka]

Hi,

Conscript crew is a very easy and efficient way to have new crew of high level. But, when I board the ennemy vessel, most of the time, I kill nearly everybody. And very often, the survivor are crew dog, navigator, pilot, gunner... It's quite rare to have a smuggler or pirate still alive... And of course, it's impossible to have a fighter surviving after a boarding.

So, how can I immobilize the ship without killing everybody in it ?

I know the theory. Crippling damage can destroy the engine, with very low casualty. But 99% of the time, the hull rupture before, and it's waste. 

How can I improve the chance to destroy the engine of the ship without boarding it, and so having a chance to conscript a high level fighter ?

Than you very much

[Proteuz]

From what I understand critical have a better chance at damaging important components and dealing more damage to components hit with that attack. A critical unfortunately also deals more damage to crew members.

startraders.gamepedia.com/Ship_Damage_Types

[Officer Genious]

Immobilize a shit or Push out a shit?


Jokes aside, what you really want are status effects. Shoot enough that they catch fire/whatever, and then wait. Reapply as necessary.

[drspendlove]

startraders.gamepedia.com/Disabling_Ships

[Gralumka]

Thanks for the tips. Ok, I have to change some of my weapon to torpedo...

For my first try, I was a half-victory. I win by killing nearly everybody with crew damage effect. But hopefuly, one of the survivor was a swordman, what I was searching for. A 24 swoardsman for my 23 captain, I'm very happy of it.

[daveal]

For a long time it has been true that the best way to get high level crew is conscription. However, in one update a few weeks ago, they added more ways to increase the level of crew hired from contacts, such as high military rank, etc. Apparently you can get up to level 16 now. Has anybody tried this instead of conscription? I know that on impossible, you can conscript level 40 crew, and contacts can't match that. But it seems much nicer to have contacts give you crew you can actually use, after the early game.

[Officer Genious]

Sept 16, 2019 10:46:37 GMT -5 daveal said:

For a long time it has been true that the best way to get high level crew is conscription. However, in one update a few weeks ago, they added more ways to increase the level of crew hired from contacts, such as high military rank, etc. Apparently you can get up to level 16 now. Has anybody tried this instead of conscription? I know that on impossible, you can conscript level 40 crew, and contacts can't match that. But it seems much nicer to have contacts give you crew you can actually use, after the early game.

I don't play that high up, but I've recruited higher-level people before via rank. It's a nice little perk and a good reason to get those ranks even when the whole "a minor transgression will lose you a lot of rank stuff" is risky.

[drspendlove]

I can find FAR better recruits in terms of attributes via Contacts than I can via Conscription. That said, the low accuracy and dodge they face climbing up the ladder to high levels each time is still pretty rough.

[daveal]

Is there a recipe on how to get high level crew from contacts? I tend to burn through a lot of soldiers, and Faen conveniently gives soldier crew. What should I do to get high level soldiers from him?

[daveal]

From update 179:

Rumors, Rep and Rank

We've added more effects to high Reputation, high Military Rank and recruiting Rumors.

First up -- very high Rep Captains can gain additional bonus levels recruiting anyone from a zone with Starport 8 or higher. These bonuses can be especially significant when combined with other Rumors and factors -- starting at 500 (+1 non-combat), 800 (+1 all), 1100 (+2 combat, +1 all others), 1400 (+2 all) and 2100 (+3 all).

Next up -- Permit Rank 4 and Military Rank 13 and higher both have gained additional bonuses to their recruit types. For example, Permit 4 now gives +2 level bonus to Smugglers.

Spice Festival, Academy Graduation and Mercenary Rumors also all got their level bonuses boosted, giving even better options for spice hall and contact recruits.

With all the changes, the new theoretical maximum for a recruit is now level 16, but it would take a lot of work and the right Rumor conditions!

I know Faen was giving me level 6 soldiers late game, but I had no military rank. I guess at 1100 rep, I would get +3. This doesn't mention the effect of mil rank on soldiers. Do you suppose there is documentation of this somewhere?

[deviantlogic]

Eat a whole block of velveeta cheese product on a loaf of cheap white bread.

[Gralumka]

What make this game interesting is that it never goes exactly as you want.

So, I do a lot of crew battle, and lost a swordsman I need to replace. But at this time, I have no contact with enough rep and the ability to recruit swordsman.

So sometime, recruiting from contact is the good option. And sometime, because you don't have the good contact at the right time, conscription is a better one.

When your fighting team is decimated, you need a high level fighter now, and don't have the time to level up one recruiting from contact. (And for myself, I cannot recruit above 11 level, and I'm very high with my faction)

[fallen]

Well put @gralumka - glad it plays that way for you. We intended for STF's simulation to constantly evolve under you and prevent you from getting "into a groove" too much

[Gralumka]

To put an end to this thread,

I build a new ship, full of torpedo, and it works great at hard difficulty. I destroy the ship's engine about 75% of the time, without boarding. 25% of the time, I stop firing just before the hull rupture and I board, but without to much difficulty, because the crew has already taken a lot of crew damage.

For it, I stay at range 5, fire torpedo and use talents to buff my defense or debuff ennemy accuracy (bombardment, elusive barrage work great). I try to stay at range 5 and let my ennemy use his reactor point to close or flee while I'm using full RP to fire.

It's very usefull againts weaker opponent like merchant or smuggler. Against tougher opponent, I may have harder time. Torpedo are not the most powerfull weapon...

[daveal]

Glad you found a working technique. I agree that it's helpful to have backups for your main positions. I try to have 7-8 combat team members, even if one of them is lower level they can sit in the background for a while. Be careful relying on a range 5 strategy against xeno. I always escape, or skip off the void, but apparently they have crazy high damage at range 5 compared to other ranges.